A Meditation on the Clothes We Wear to Meditate
God bless the Thursday Styles for reminding us how we are stylistically failing in one way or another, you know, so we can address those issues and improve! Today there's a surprise attack on something you might not have realized was important. How are your clothes for meditation? Do you look hot in them? If not, uh oh. You're in trouble. One must dress for success, not just in the office, but in the gym, and in the yoga studio, and wherever you choose to meditate, for that matter. Are you not meditating? Oh dear.
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Here's what we learned from Ruby Warrington's piece, "The New Mantra: Replacing ‘Om’ With ‘Glam’":
1. Lots of people meditate now! (For instance, Russell Brand, Miranda Kerr, maybe even you or someone you know.) It's "the emotional equivalent of green juice: a well-being essential." Which means, it sort of tastes terrible but you do it anyway because you're "supposed to," or your trendy cousin suggested it and you figure, it's the new year, why not give it a whirl, for a week at least, or until you can't bear all that time spent alone in your own head thinking about nothing when you could be watching TV or even doing work or drinking a beer and relaxing.
2. People need CLOTHES in order to meditate, lest everything besides what they're wearing become all too distracting. Thus, writes Warrington, "one question inevitably comes to mind (no matter how hard you are trying to empty the contents of your cranium): What to wear?" You can't just throw on some old yoga pants and a tank top; tacky tacky! Flowy white shirts and pants are too stock-photo beach vacay. A suit looks like you're meditating at work — not very soothing. Whatever is a person to do?
3. Athletic-wear companies, who want to sell you things (because they are very kind), can help! For example, from the widely popular athletic retailer Lululemon, a "Devotion Long-Sleeve Tee ($68) and an Intuition Sweater Wrap ($178) that doubles as a meditation blanket." Not enough for your meditation needs? On the even higher end, you can buy some Donna Karan sweatpants from the "Urban Zen" line for just under $1000. Don't worry, the line is affiliated with her charitable wellness foundation! And Karan herself meditates! It's all so zen, until you realize you've spent $1000 on a pair of sweatpants that cover the part of your body that's not actually doing any meditating. The emperor's new meditation clothes are just divine, however.
4. Who cares about the material things in life, like how much you owe Visa for your meditation garb? Other things, like what you wear to meditate, are far more important. “If you want to get more excited about your practice,” said self-help author Gabrielle Bernstein, who poses in the middle of a New York City street (literally, right there in the middle of traffic!) for her photo for Warrington's article, “choose an outfit you want to put on.” An outfit that doesn't pick up street dirt too easily. That photo makes me need to meditate.
A quick summary of this important piece: People are wearing clothes to do things. They are wearing, sometimes, expensive clothes that are branded as "meditation clothes" in order to "meditate" or "go about their practice." Maybe they accessorize (say "with a big vintage scarf"!) or "layer" and even dab on a bit of scented oil before starting what they do. Style is everywhere, we are all style. You can't get away from it. Breathe in. Breathe out. If you just sold a pair of $1000 meditation pants to someone, pump your fist in the air and shout "yahoo!" because a sucker is born every minute. Now, who wants some peace and quiet with which to thoughtfully peruse his or her credit card statement? [Covers head with hoodie.]
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Image via Shutterstock by Aleksandar Todorovic.
